Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia broke the indoor 3000m world record by over a second on Wednesday in Liévin, France.
Girma, a steeplechase specialist who has won three Olympic and world championship silver medals at the event, ran 7:23.81 in the 3000m to break Daniel Komen‘s 25-year-old 7:24.90 time.
Girma held off Spain’s Mo Katir to set the record, taking over the lead after the pacers dropped out and never looking back (Katir was also well under the old world record time—7:24.68). When Girma crossed the line, he was more than a full second ahead of the world-record pace lights on the track set to Komen’s time.
Girma ran the time at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin, which is part of the World Athletics Tour circuit. Liéven is no stranger to world records — Girma’s 3000m is the ninth such record set at the meet over its 35-year history.
The pacers and pacing lights were set to world-record pace in every distance race at the meet except the men’s 800m, and LetsRun predicted that the 3000m record was the one primed to fall.
Also in the race was American Grant Fisher, who ran 7:35 for fifth place and a new personal best.
Girma is also a world indoor silver medalist in the 3000m, and with a world record now under his belt, he poses a strong challenge to the steeplechase field at this year’s world championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Also in Liévin, hurdlers Karsten Warholm and Femke Bol both set meet records in the open 400m, running 45.51 and 50.20. Olympic champions Mondo Duplantis and Katie Moon won the men’s and women’s pole vault, with Moon vaulting a new world lead of 4.83m. And Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Gudaf Tsegay set world leads in the 1500m in 3:32.38 and 3:57.47.
